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Bionic hands get the sensitive touch

Gel-filled fingertips could give prosthetic hands greater sensitivity, even allowing them to react “instinctively” to objects slipping from their grasp.

Human hands automatically estimate the minimum force needed to hold on to an object, using a built-in reflex that responds to tiny vibrations in the skin as an object starts to slip through our fingers.

Existing artificial hands do not have this reflex mechanism, so their operators have to consciously estimate the required force. “It’s very mentally taxing,” says Jeremy Fishel, one of a team that built the new fingertip at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. The tip …